Steelers' Ben Roethlisberger Sees A Quiet Payoff From A Risky Right Tackle Call

The Pittsburgh Steelers spent September answering a question nobody wants to ask about an offense led by a 42-year-old quarterback: Can the guys up front keep him upright? Early returns were ugly enough that one former franchise quarterback publicly pushed for a change. Eight games into the season, he's getting something he couldn't have expected from that gamble. Mostly, he isn't hearing much about it.

For an offensive lineman, silence can be the nicest review in football. Ben Roethlisberger sees that as an encouraging sign for Max Iheanachor, the first-round rookie settling in at right tackle after a rocky introduction to the NFL. The former Steelers quarterback wanted Pittsburgh to play him earlier. Now, he's seeing the payoff.

Iheanachor was the 21st overall selection in April, but his first August didn't follow the preferred script. An injury cost him significant preseason work, and Pittsburgh opened with Dylan Cook starting on the right side. Following two rough offensive performances, Head Coach Mike McCarthy inserted Iheanachor at right tackle and Brock Hoffman beside him at guard for Week 3.

Roethlisberger wasn't arriving late to this idea. Before the season, he had already advocated starting Iheanachor, accepting that a raw first-round tackle would take his lumps. Pittsburgh eventually took the same approach, and the offense looked more capable against the Cincinnati Bengals. The rookie made his first start in a 30-27 win, helping a unit that ran for 138 net yards.

On the latest episode of Footbahlin with Ben Roethlisberger, the longtime Steelers quarterback explained why the improvement is increasingly difficult to overlook, even if nobody is making a weekly highlight reel about it.

“When you're talking about the run game right now, when you talk about what IMAX has done at right tackle, when I don't hear his name being called much, and that's usually a pretty good thing when you're a lineman. ... Has he taken his rookie lumps? Sure. ... But the eye test says right now that group and him are doing pretty well,” Roethlisberger said.

That assessment is a considerable change from Roethlisberger's concern after Pittsburgh's early offensive struggles. He questioned whether the line could protect Aaron Rodgers or establish the run. Now his most telling compliment isn't that Iheanachor is flattening every edge rusher. It's that opponents aren't regularly making the rookie the story.

Offensive linemen rarely trend for the correct reasons. Give up a sack, and your name gets announced, replayed and dissected in slow motion. Execute your assignment, and you might get zero attention while a running back takes the bows. That's the kind of boring Pittsburgh could use more of, especially with Rodgers no longer able to rescue every collapsing pocket with his legs.

Pittsburgh's first visit to Cleveland illustrated why nobody should rush the rookie's development story. Rodgers took five sacks in that 27-24 loss, and the protection looked nothing like the version that had improved against Cincinnati. Iheanachor had struggles of his own, but assigning all five sacks to one tackle would be lazy analysis. Protection also depends on the other linemen, the quarterback's timing and the call before the snap.

Sunday's rematch was much more convincing. The Steelers rushed for 200 yards in a 27-6 victory over the Cleveland Browns, with Jaylen Warren supplying 143 on 17 carries. Rodgers was sacked once. The front didn't merely survive; it helped dictate the game, including a 51-yard Warren run on third-and-13. That's a spectacular way to make a play caller look smart.

The success goes well beyond one tackle. Troy Fautanu and Mason McCormick have been working together on the left, while Zach Frazier directs traffic in the middle. Hoffman supplies an experienced presence next to Iheanachor. Better communication across that group helps the rookie identify pressure, stay balanced and avoid making a difficult assignment even harder.

Fellow former Steelers quarterback Charlie Batch made a broader point on the podcast, singling out Frazier's importance in the middle. For a young tackle, that support matters. If the center's protection call and the right side's assignments don't match, even a textbook individual block can leave Rodgers facing a free rusher.

The running success also took more than five big men pushing forward. Pittsburgh used trap concepts against an aggressive Cleveland front, exploiting defenders eager to shoot upfield. When the blockers execute those angles and the backs recognize daylight, defenses have to respect something besides Rodgers' arm. Iheanachor benefits from that balance, but he also has to earn it with sound technique.

Steelers Need The Rookie's Quiet Progress To Last

Roethlisberger included a useful qualification in his praise. He wasn't claiming to have graded every snap of All-22 film or suggesting the rookie is suddenly an elite tackle. That's a fair distinction. Iheanachor still needs to improve his pass sets, recognize late pressure and handle the noise that caused problems during the first Cleveland matchup. One strong afternoon doesn't make those lessons disappear.

But Pittsburgh shouldn't treat every growing pain as proof the decision was foolish. The alternative was leaving a first-round investment on the bench while the protection struggled anyway. McCarthy gave Iheanachor real reps, paired him with a veteran guard and accepted that mistakes would come with the opportunity. The offensive line is beginning to look like a functioning unit rather than five separate projects.

The Steelers enter their bye at 6-2 before facing Cincinnati again on November 15. The next goal isn't turning Iheanachor into a weekly headline. It's making him the kind of dependable tackle nobody thinks about until someone notices how well the offense is moving. Roethlisberger knows how valuable that silence can be.

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